And Then There Were None
by Findegil
Summary: Semi-ok-not-so-serious Okita X Kagura, with semblance of a plot, cross dressing, cosplay, and swordfighting. I don't own Gintama...so don't expect anything epic. Please review if you'd like a sequel, as I'm deciding whether to write one.
1. Prologue

If he had been asked yesterday what his plans for the weekend were, Okita would have said, "the usual." The usual, to Okita, was planning new ways to usurp the Vice-commander's position, and executing them. Of course, an uneasy truce was declared on Saturday night, but only for an hour when Okita's drama was on. The weekends, whenever Okita wasn't on duty, went like this:

10:00 --Think about getting up.

10:01--Go back to sleep.

11:00--Get woken up by Hijikata/Kondo/Yamazaki being insanely loud in or near his room.

11:01--Go back to sleep.

12:00--Get up to eat.

12:30-22:00 --Do various miscellaneous activities such as brainstorming, scouting, espionage, blackmail, and training.

22:00-23:00 --Watch TV drama.

23:30 --Sneak in and take out the batteries in Hijikata's alarm clock just in case he gets called up for duty on Sunday.

23:35--Sleep and repeat on Sunday.

This weekend had spilled over to Monday, due to Kondo drinking far too much and sleeping the whole of Sunday. Thus Okita was stuck with his weekend routine on Monday. Except it was anything but routine. Okita seemed to have stepped into a bizarre anime this "weekend." He was wearing a blue and white kimono and black boots. A bokuto was strapped around his hips with a thin black belt. And, worst of all, he was staring into china blue eyes. Those eyes were far too big, far too wide. The girl who stood stuck between him and the wall had been struggling, but now was still. Time had stopped. Sounds had been silenced.

"Did you do that," he said, breaking the silence, "because it was me, or because I looked like him?"


	2. Chapter 1

Yamazaki was stuck cross-dressing. Again. This time, it was as a servant in the house of a Bakufu government official. He wondered whether it was actually impossible for him to go as a male servant, or if the Vice-commander was just messing with him. Hijikata did like to do that. The Bakufu official was of moderate rank, but up and coming in the nasty world of politics which imbued Edo at present. This was one reason why Yamazaki had been sent to infiltrate the household. Another was a piece of information concerning the contacts of this politician. It seemed he had hired agents to investigate several people whom the Shinsengumi were also on the look out for any information regarding: Kotaro Katsura, Tatsuma Sakamoto, Takasugi Shinsuke, and Sakata Gintoki.

What this official wanted with the four former comrades, and why, were Yamazaki's mission. Higher servants had given him several messages (of no importance, he had found after peaking) looking to discover the whereabouts of certain information gatherers (some of whom Yamazaki was acquainted with). Soon, Yamazaki knew, he had to sneak into the room where the important documents were kept. He didn't want to, but his desire to stop wearing women's clothes gave him courage to attempt it, one night when the official was away.

As soon as he got into the room, Yamazaki's keen sense of impending doom began to stir. It yawned, rolled over, and went back to sleep.

"Ah good, no one seems to be around," he thought.

Just then, the door slid open and shut.

Two men walked in, and pried up one tatami mat to reveal a trap door leading underground. There was a tap, the trap door opened, and Yamazaki, from his perch inside the closet, saw a blonde haired man dressed in a kimono glide up into the room. He sat on the floor at the table, as the two men covered up the door with the tatami.

The door slid open again to reveal the government official, accompanied by a servant who poured tea, and left them.

"Why is he here? He was meant to be out all night," Yamazaki thought. He prodded his sense of impending doom for being such a lazy ass, but got no response except a loud snore. Yamazaki nearly cursed aloud.

"Well, what do we have here?"

"All the information that has been gathered so far."

"And?"

"Nothing of consequence. One is a successful businessman, two terrorists, and one... is... a yorozuya."

"Ah, I can easily guess who that is."

"He is, to be frank, the big unknown in all of this. No one seems to know which side he's on..."

"...or if he even cares about picking a 'side'."

"Exactly." The official looked at the man sitting opposite him, seeking to screw up his courage somehow.

"Sensei, may I ask what do you want with these men?"

"Oh," the man smiled, and a chill went down the official's spine, "They are remnants of my former life."

--

"How should I put this..." Kondo waffled, turning the tea cup around and around.

"Yamazaki went undercover in what we believe is a new emerging criminal group and found out your old sensei didn't actually die."

"Hijikata!!" Kondo roared.

Shinpachi and Kagura looked at Gintoki. He sat, finger in his ear, looking unconcerned that a former teacher, whose death drove one of his comrades insane, another to terrorism, and the last to rogue space pirating, had somehow escaped it and was back in Edo. The odds that he was truly as apathetic as he appeared were not high. Still, Gintoki took out his finger, sniffed it, and flicked whatever it was off in the Shinsengumi's direction.

"Uh...so...we'd like," Kondo tried to recover, "to pay you to go meet with him and find out what he wants."

"He's waiting at the terminal for you at 10 am."

"HIJIKATA, I HAVEN'T GOT TO THAT PART YET!!" Kondo roared even louder.

"Sorry, dear customers, but I have a prior engagement." Gintoki got up from the couch.

"Where are you going?" Shinpachi asked. "This is kind of important, don't you think?"

"I just remembered. Jump comes out today."

"But..." said Kagura.

Gintoki had already left, slamming the door behind him.

"Well, it's pretty clear he didn't go to buy Jump." Hijikata said dryly.

"Yeah, who is he fooling." Kondo scoffed. "It isn't even Monday."

"Captain, it IS Monday," Hijikata reminded him, for the uptenth time. "Good thing I gave him the wrong place for the meeting."

"What??" Kagura and Shinpachi in unison.

"We have about 30 minutes, give or take a few, until he finds out it's not there and comes back, ready to chop our heads off." Hijikata continued. "And I for one do not want to be here when he gets back."

"We need a plan..." Kondo mused.

"China girl, would Danna actually take 30 minutes to get to the terminal?"

"How should I know?" Kagura retorted, still annoyed at their deception.

"I got it!"

All eyes turned to Kondo.

"We dress someone up as Gintoki, go to the actual place, and get the sensei to spill the beans."

"That's the stupidest plan you've ever come up with." Hijikata mumbled, head in his hand.

"Do you really think one of us can cosplay as Gintoki, to his former sensei, and get away with it?" Shinpachi added.

"Anyone could do it; I've cosplayed as him before." Kagura stated.

There was silence for a full minute as everyone took in this statement.

"Well, he hasn't seen Gintoki in a long time..." said Shinpachi.

"And with a wig..." Kondo added enthusiastically.

"And I know exactly who's going to do it." Hijikata said.

"Who??" Everyone asked.

"Okita."


	3. Chapter 2

"You're kidding right, Hijikata-san?" Okita asked in his usual deadpan.

"Of course not." Hijikata answered. "This is payback for last week's exploding toilet incident." He added in a menacing undertone which only Okita could hear.

"Great idea Hijikata! Since Yamazaki's undercover already, he can't do it, so Okita's perfect."

"One day soon, Hijikata-san, you'll be giving me orders from the afterlife..." Okita snarled in an equally menacing undertone.

Okita eyed Kagura, who was disturbing him by running her eyes over his body. It was to him as if she were sizing up a steak she was deciding whether to inhale herself or give to Sadaharu.

"Does he have any spare clothes we can...er...borrow?" Kondo asked Shinpachi.

"For a fee of course," Hijikata added.

"Yeah, sure." Shinpachi said. "It's not like he has only one set of clothes."

He led them to the next room, as the smell of fresh meat had caused Sadaharu to knock down any barrier between him and it, and Kagura stayed to try and wrestle him back into the kitchen. The closet opened to reveal 5 identical white and blue kimonos, black pants, and black shirts.

Again, there was silence for a minute, while the Shinsengumi digested the contents of the closet.

"So...did he...get these on sale or something?" Hijikata asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"We've never had the courage to ask," Shinpachi said.

More silence.

"Heck, I just do the laundry," he continued. "I don't ask where he originally got them, what he does with them, or how they replenish themselves."

"Maybe they spontaneously generate in here," Okita said, peeking further into it and sniffing.

"Will they fit Okita?" Kondo asked, now running his eyes over Okita, and disturbing Okita more than Kagura did.

"I think so, with a few tweaks." Shinpachi said.

The 3 Shinsengumi now appraised Shinpachi.

"You can be amazed what a few strategically placed safety pins can do."

--

Kagura spent ten minutes getting Sadaharu back into the kitchen. When she finally escaped, dripping with drool, she looked around for the Shinsengumi. She only found Shinpachi, whom she could tell was nervous from the familiar twitch of his eye.

"Shinpachi?"

"Oh, Kagura, you're still alive." Shinpachi remarked. "It sounded scary in there so I didn't come to help."

"Where did they go?"

"Well, they already left. Seemed they needed a wig. Seriously, what we do for money around here..."

"I mean, dumbass, where's the place they went to meet the guy?"

"How should I know? Maybe you should take Sadaharu if you want to track them down. Here, take these too."

"Geez, and I just got him back in there," Kagura sighed, and hurried to get Sadaharu.

"Don't mind me... I'll stay here and try to reason with Gintoki when he comes back to murder us... If I'm in pieces when you get back, you'll know what happened."

The door slammed.

"Promise you'll try to have them put me back together..." Shinpachi yelled after her.


	4. Chapter 3

Sadaharu quickly found Okita's scent, as the Shinsengumi had left his uniform and sword at the Yorozuya for safe keeping. Little did they know that no item left at the Yorozuya was likely to ever be returned in one piece, otherwise they never would have left it. Kagura felt the insane desire to either cut the uniform to shreds with his sword, or use it as a chew toy for Sadaharu. Perhaps both. Then she had another idea, which made her smile devilishly. She got on Sadaharu and held the uniform out to him, who sniffed it, eager to please.

"Go find him, Sadaharu."

Sadaharu, as if sensing her thoughts, started to drool and took off running. He cut through alleys, across several bridges, and finally stopped near a house at the end of a row of traditional Japanese-style houses, which were built after the Amanto invasion to house and entertain foreign dignitaries. They were set far apart from each other so that they could contain carefully tended gardens, with some even containing cherry orchards and greenhouses.

She kneeled on Sadaharu and peeked her head over the wall surrounding the house. She couldn't see anyone, so she sat back on Sadaharu, and told him to jump. He did, as soundlessly as possible, though Kagura didn't quite care if she blew the cosplaying bastard's cover. She slid onto the landing which ran along the whole length of the house, and slunk in. Sadaharu stood, as if expecting some treat.

"Go home, Sadaharu." Kagura whispered, looking around to see if anyone heard her. "No stopping on the way, ok?"

Sadaharu turned and ran off.

Kagura also turned, and with a stealth that rivaled Sa-chan, began to creep down the hall. She passed one, then two doors. There were no sounds from either room, so she wondered if they were meeting in another part of the house. Carefully, she opened one sliding door, and a hand clamped over her mouth. She promptly bit it, and the owner of the hand cursed.

Unfortunately, Kagura knew well who that voice belonged to.

She kicked behind her hard, just to be sure, and for the indignity of the hand over her mouth. Then she faced him, as he lay crouched on the ground, and felt a shock run through her. His wig was the perfect silver color, and tousled the way Gintoki's hair was. And well, he filled out Gintoki's clothes much better than she did. Even Gintoki's bokuto was stuck in the belt slung around his waist. Still doubled over in pain, for Kagura's foot had found his groin, Okita lifted his head, wincing. There his eyes stood out underneath his silver hair, and Kagura had the thought that his eyes were more beautiful than Gintoki's ever would be.

_But a guy's eyes shouldn't be beautiful, right? What are you thinking, you stupid idiot._

To cover her confusion, Kagura crossed her arms and smiled as wide as she could, then opened her mouth...

...only to be tackled around the legs and thrown back against the wall.

_Shit, this brat recovers quickly. I should have kicked him harder. And in the face too, just to be sure.  
_

Lightening fast, Okita grabbed her arms and pinned her to the wall. Then, remembering how much her kicks hurt, he just as fast stood on both of her feet. He leaned onto her gently, their bodies lightly touching. Kagura opened her mouth to protest this treatment with enough volume to be heard in Sakuran (some planet in the middle of a far-away galaxy), but just as she did, he covered her slightly open mouth with his.

Through the screaming of his thoughts about the sensations that were threatening to overwhelm him, one glaring fact gradually started to stand out. She was not struggling. She was kissing him back. The kiss had dissolved into something more than Okita had intended, and they both melted into each other, for all caution had been thrown to the wind, and all sounds had been silenced.

Then Okita stiffened, and pulled away. The stood regarding each other, still in silence.

"Did you do that because it was me, or because I looked like him?"

The second the words left his mouth, Okita wondered whose mind they had come from.

_Shouldn't I be more concerned with kissing this monster of a girl than trying to understand why she had kissed me back? _

_Who cares what she thinks about the Yorozuya Danna? _

_Obviously, you do..._

_No, I don't. _

_Yes, it bothers you deep down, that she's always looking at him and never at you. _

_Who cares who the hell she looks at? They're her eyes. _

_That's why you provoke her. You do it so she'll look at you. You'll do anything it takes for her to look at you..._

This internal argument, in which Okita's honest self was gaining the upper hand, was rudely interrupted by Kagura.

"I don't know..." she whispered. There was silence again.

"Want to try it again so you can make up your mind?" 

_There you go, goading her again. _

_Shut up..._

Kagura turned bright red.

_You're a huge flirt now. _

_Shut up!_

Somehow Kagura regained control of her addled brain, or rather, used it for a practical purpose: a head butt. Okita reeled back, and released his tenacious hold on her long enough for Kagura to wiggle out from the wall. She then took off down the hall running.

Okita stood blankly looking at her back, his hand pressed to his head, the darkness of unconsciousness creeping into the corners of his mind, and his mind willing the darkness away long enough for him to catch her before anyone else did.


	5. Chapter 4

Kagura ran straight out of the house, onto the landing, and under it into the small crawl space between the ground and the house. There she lay flat on her stomach, trying in desperation to get her breath back. Her hands, cold with sweat, crept up to her mouth, covered it, traced her lips. She gathered up all the spit she had in her mouth and hacked it up onto the ground. The purge did nothing to dispel the taste of him in her mouth, strong and sweet.

Footsteps shook dust onto her hair. Her fingertips came off her lips wet. Echoes above her head resounded in her ears, as a door slid shut.

"He's here."

"Is he? How very prompt."

Their voices now rang through her head.

"Just what part of your past are you dredging up? Nothing worthless, I hope..."

"I expect not."

"Who is he?"

_Impatient..._Kagura thought.

"Merely the Shiroyasha"

Kagura heard a slight gasp above her. She crept to where the most dust had fallen, and scraped a slit between the floorboards.

"THE Shiroyasha?" The man said, looking incredulous.

"Why would I lie to you? I was perhaps part of the cause the 'white demon' became so feared." Framed by his golden hair, his face was angelic, slightly bowed, reverent.

"What would you have with him?" the other said, putting a cup, and a tray of food, in front of his companion.

"I would have you ask less about my dealings," the angelic one replied, taking up the cup, and turning it with measured hands. "But since you are rarely so curious..."

The man with the face of an angel now spoke with the voice of a demon.

"...he will join me, or he will be destroyed."

--

Okita ran after Kagura, but stopped short as he saw two men enter the hall and glide down into a room at the corner of the house. The attendants following after them carried food, set it down just inside of the door, and slid it shut. Okita alternatively blessed and cursed the fact that Kagura had disappeared before they had appeared, for it meant that it was only a small matter of time before he too had to step into that room.

His hand tightened around the bokuto at his waist.

--

Kagura clutched her head. The first inclination she had at the demonic angel's words was to blast open a hole in the floor and kill them both for the plans forming around Gin-chan. With a start, she realized Gintoki was not there, and that another man had taken his place. An equally strong second inclination after she came to this realization was to run away back to the Yorozuya, where she and Shinpachi could merely wait and lay low until the tempest subsided, and Gin-chan was back to his normal, lazy self. She didn't like when Gin-chan was angry. Another, more sinister inclination, however, was forming in the depths of her mind. She kept trying to push it back with images of Shinpachi and Gintoki, waiting back at home for her return, but when she tried to imagine Gintoki, all that occupied her mind was a boy dressed like him, but with eyes that mesmerized her, engulfed her, left her unable to move from the spot she crouched. It was as if he had drawn his image inside her with his kiss, which she could not erase.

--

Okita stood outside the door, willing his heart to be calm, still tasting her sent in his mouth, a bead of sweat dripping down the small of his back.

A voice from inside the room called to him.

He entered it.

--

Her hands reached up, folded around the fabric, and pulled.

"So, you came," he said, back to Okita.

"I thought it may be a joke."

"I see."

"'Is it April Fool's Day?' I thought..."

His smell poured over her, and her eyes, unwilling, shut. The darkness behind her eyes mirrored the clothes she held.

"...then I realized," Okita said, his lazy tone exactly a match to Gintoki's, "that it was October."

One arm reached in his coat, then another.

_This is nothing like when I wore Gin-chan's clothes..._

"Of course, it could've been another of Takasugi's lame attempts at humor..."

One leg, then another.

_How does this bastard wear this heavy uniform in the summer?_

"But then I thought that was low, even for him..."

A hand reached in, and brought out a sheathed sword.

_Maybe the damn brat has a short-sleeved version for summer..._

"So as you piqued my interest, here I am."

"Please, do sit down, Sakata-kun."

An arm as if sculpted in the form of a Grecian god fell from the kimono, gestured to a seat in facing him. The man sat, still as a statue, had not turned once to look at him the whole time Okita had spoken.

Her hands reached once more and brought out pins.

_Now, what was it that Shinpachi taught me..._

--

Okita sat.

The angelic man smiled, slow and piercing, half of his countenance covered in shadow.

_How am I going to escape this one..._

Another bead of sweat followed the first down his back.

Then the door burst open, cut into shards by a blade in the hands of what looked, to Okita, very much like a Shinsengumi.

_What the hell...are Kondo and Hijikata really back here that fast?_

"And just what are you doing here?"

"I'm not here to arrest you, that's for sure."

The man turned, as the dust settled, and upraised the intruder.

"But you're Shinsengumi, are you not?"

"So what if I am."

"You also didn't answer my first question. I now know what you are _not_ here for, but I would like to know the reason why you are here..."

Kagura put her hand on Okita's sword, ready to draw it, and looked straight at Okita.

"I'm going to kill him."


	6. Chapter 5 Epilogue

_What are you doing? Don't you know they'll kill you or worse once they realize you're a girl and not a Shinsengumi? They might already know..._

Kagura stood in his uniform, her back arched proudly, taunt and ready to spring into action. Once again she spoke.

"That man. Give him to me."

"Why should I?"

"I have to make him pay, right here, right now. I'll kill him for what he did."

"Well then..."

Okita was impressed at how Kagura was handling the situation, though he wondered where she came up with that last cheesy line. It sounded like one from a TV Drama he had watched a while ago. _Perhaps she had watched it too..._

She stood, unusually calm and level headed. Suddenly, her face darkened. The stalemate ended, and she drew Okita's sword so fast only Okita's similarly fast instincts saved him from a beheading at her hands. Wood struck steel, sending shivers up Okita's spine. She was not acting a part. She was serious in her claim that she would kill him. And Okita thought he knew what he had done that had caused such murderous sentiments.

With one arm, she struck progressively faster and faster, and it took all of Okita's concentration to parry her attacks, until soon they were moving so quickly those who were watching could see but blurs of color. Kagura pressed harder, as they were destroying the house to get outside, jumping on the wall, running down it, leaping to the next, and leaving the onlookers further and further behind.

"Should we bring them back sir?"

A small smile formed at the corners of his mouth.

"I think not. It was hard enough to see them, let alone follow them."

He turned away from the window, hands folded, resting in his kimono.

"Well then, _Gintoki_, I wonder what exactly I shall do to you when we meet again..."

--

Kagura and Okita drew apart, sweating and exhilarated, far from the house where they started. Okita, seeing Kagura pause, withdrew slightly out of his instinctive fighting state, where everything turned a bloody shade of red, and nothing else mattered but cutting the other down. The thought crept into his mind that he looked a bit ridiculous, and he reached up to pull off his silver wig.

Once he took it off, Kagura saw his hair plastered to his head with sweat. He shook his hair, and Kagura's heart lurched. She tried to compare it to a dog shaking off water, but failed miserably.

"What the hell were you doing back there?" Kagura asked to cover her thoughts. "Why did you go in there and talk to that freakish guy?" _You could've been killed...and I'm the one supposed to do that..._

"What the hell were _you_ doing?" Okita retorted. "Why did you steal my clothes and parade around in them like that?" _They could've killed you...I'm going to be the one to kill you..._

"Why did you go along with them and pretend to be Gin-chan?"

Okita flinched at that name, and dropped the bokuto. He undid his black belt. Quickly, Kagura looked down at the ground, willing her heart to beat slower. A Kimono fell next to the belt, followed by a black shirt. Indignation surged through her mind, and she blurted out,

"What the hell are you doing now?"

"Give me back my clothes," came the calm reply.

"After all the trouble I went through--" Kagura lifted her eyes, and could not finish her thought. She stood staring at his bare chest, the sweat starting to stand out on her forehead. She swallowed, and tried a different train of thought:

"You want me to just undress here, give you your clothes, and go naked?"

Okita stared at her a moment.

"You can wear those," he said, pointing at Gintoki's clothes and starting to turn away. "Or was I wrong in hearing you say that you've worn them before?"

"Shut up, you bastard! I don't want to wear those things now..." Kagura tried to wrench her eyes away from his hair plastered to his neck, the crease of his back, where his hips met his black pants, but couldn't.

"You're not making much sense at all..." Okita continued, a touch sarcastically. "Aren't you already wearing clothes I've worn?"

With this very true statement about her logic, pushing its way through to her true motive for not wanting to change, Kagura's rage erupted once again. Okita quickly turned, and reached out as the sword flew past his head. As he caught the grip, Kagura had her umbrella out. In the back of Okita's mind, he wondered where she kept it. There they stood, each ready, waiting for the first one to strike.

"Let's finish this."

"Fine by me, though with that bulky umbrella-gun-thing you have, it's going to be hard."

"I'll beat you senseless without even having to fire a single shot."

"We'll see about that, China girl."

Kagura struck, and Okita found she wasn't lying. Her umbrella was heavy, yet she wielded it with such ease it was like a twig in her hands. Then the blood rushed into his eyes again, and the world was his to destroy.

Their pace quickened, and Kagura found his footwork was becoming troublesome. She tried to focus only on the flash of his sword, instead of his half-naked body, now becoming wet and glistening with sweat. The Yato did not usually train to combat such thoughts, but discipline slowly won over the desire to stare, and Kagura struck with fierce resolution.

Now, though, it seemed Okita was the one quickening his thrusts. Soon Kagura was only parrying, as the blows of his sword rained down upon her. She realized now why this was the man deemed the best swordsman in the Shinsengumi. His cold focus tore away everything in its path, until his sword was dyed crimson, his eyes distant and vast.

It dawned on Kagura that no human --perhaps not even Gin-chan-- could stand when Okita held a sword in his hands. He was equal to her, even though she was from one of the universe's strongest fighting clans, and this enraged Kagura even more. Some brat from a planet out in the middle of nowhere was fighting as her equal. She glanced at his eyes and was met with fierce, detached horror. His eyes were the color of spilled blood, growing more crimson and terrible with each passing moment. Their swords locked, each close to the other, her breath cooling his chest, his hair dripping on his uniform that she wore.

_Why is he doing this?  
_

Something snapped in Kagura, and as their swords still locked, she closed her eyes and dropped her umbrella. She ducked and turned as his sword swung down and buried itself in the ground, the force of his strike so close that it rustled her hair. In an instant, before he could fully dislodge the sword, she grasped his right hand. Slowly, as she lifted her eyes and stared into his, the crimson faded, retreated back into the shadows of his mind.

There they stood, so close Kagura could count the lashes on his eyes or the strands of his hair. She took in his smell, the same that embraced her in the clothes she wore. She brought up her right hand, and brushed the hair off his forehead, glimpsing a darkness similar to the one she carried in his eyes.

Okita felt her hand on his hair, sweeping across his forehead, and it nearly broke him. She had banished the scarlet thoughts from his mind, and he was left empty. Void. Okita slowly closed his eyes to the deep, drowning blue of her eyes which were beginning to swim in his vision. As a solitary trail of a tear left a mark down his cheek, he embraced the darkness which left him alone.

In that darkness came a sweet, cooling flutter. Soft lips slowly wiped away the tear, as if to stamp out the thought that he was alone in the dark. They moved down his cheek, to the corner of his lips. A moment later, his eyes flew open. The grip he had on his sword loosened, and it fell with a clang onto her umbrella. His hands, shaking from the impact, stole around his jacket, as his eyes closed once more, this time to bliss.

_I..._

_go on, you can at least admit it to yourself_

_...love this girl._

_Wait, does this make me somewhat of a narcissist, since she's wearing my clothes?_

As his lips lost hers, she bowed her head, and he looked down at the top of her hair, wondering how he was going to control himself as her hands slid from around his neck down his chest.

Her lips parted, and she breathed,

"I know now...I did it because it was you."

* * *

_Epilogue_

The door to the yorozuya slid open and shut.

"Welcome back..." Shinpachi said, a trifle timid.

"Oi, oi, oi, I'm gone just to buy _Jump _and this is what you do to the house?" Gintoki surveyed the various homemade shrines set around the room.

"Er...you're not mad?"

"Except at this mess, no, I'm not..." Gintoki held up a candle, flickering faintly, covered in wax. "What are you doing, begging Buddha for a girlfriend?"

"You're really not mad?"

"Nope." Gintoki grinned, his eyes sugar-glazed. "I had 3 parfaits on the way back, courtesy of the Shinsengumi."

"Oh...well then, I think my prayers were answered..."

The door slid open and shut again.

Shinpachi glanced up at it from his kneeling posture, in front of a shrine.

"Eh? Kagura..." Shinpachi trailed off, unsure whether to continue.

"Why are you wearing my clothes?" Gintoki finished, looking incredulous.

* * *

Author's Note:

I've always been curious about Gintoki's mysterious "sensei," but as there's not much information about him, I decided to make him undead, and more than a little sinister. Takasugi and Sensei would get along well I should think, if I write a sequel. Please do review and tell me if you'd like to read one, for I have several ideas rolling around in my brain. Of course, it would have more Okita/Kagura and perhaps some other pairings as well...

* * *


End file.
